Classic books and worthy new titles for young readers courtesy of North Jersey librarians

By KARA YORIO

staff writer |

The Record

Reading lists shouldn’t be just for summer.

Clockwise from top left: "Harold and the Purple Crayon," I'm My Own Dog," "Stuart Little," "The Outsiders," "The Unfinished life of Addison Stone" and "When the Beat was Born."

As the school year is set to begin, we asked librarians from the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) for their recommendations of classics and newer titles for kids from pre-K to senior year. BCCLS is a consortium of 75 public libraries in North Jersey, with 61 branches in Bergen County, one in Passaic, nine in Essex and four in Hudson. If you want to get a passionate response, just ask a bunch of librarians about books for children and young adults.

“There’s no way to quantify the way books can change children’s lives: the magic, the discovery, the fun and, yes, the learning,” BCCLS Library Services Director Arlene Sahraie wrote in an email. “Books can change the world one reader at a time.”

Everybody knows about the “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and Harry Potter, among other famous titles and characters, but local library shelves are stacked with many more worthy books for all ages and interests.

Here are a few of the librarians’ must-reads for each age group — parents and children no doubt already know some of these well, but others may be new discoveries.

“We always like to say that our recommended reading lists are just the beginning,” wrote Sarah Pardi, children’s librarian at the Fort Lee Public Library. “I believe the best part of the library is the child's ability to walk to a shelf, pull out a book and discover something new and wonderful on their own.”

Email: yoriok@northjersey.com

We asked librarians from the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) for their recommendations of classics and newer titles for kids from kindergarten to senior year. BCCLS is a consortium of 75 public libraries in North Jersey with 61 branches in Bergen County, one in Passaic, nine in Essex and four in Hudson.

Here is their complete list of recommendations:

Pre-K

“Bark George” by Jules Feiffer

“Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin” by Duncan Tonatiuh

“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr.

“A Color of His Own” by Leo Lionni

“Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin” by Duncan Tonatiuh

“Emma Kate” by Patricia Polacco

“The Family Book” by Todd Parr

“First the Egg” by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

“Freight Train” by Donald Crews

“Froggy Gets Dressed” by Jonathan London

“Go Away, Big Green Monster” by Ed Emberley

“Good Night, Gorilla” by Peggy Rathman

“I'm my Own Dog” by David Ezra Stein

“Growing Vegetable Soup” by Lois Ehlert

“Hey, Little Ant” by Phillip M. Hoose

“I Want My Hat Back” by Jon Klassen

“I'm my Own Dog” by David Ezra Stein

“It Looked Like Spilt Milk” by Charles Shaw

“The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn

“Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale” by Mo Willems

“Lost and Found” by Oliver Jeffers

“Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale” by Mo Willems

“Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey

“Maple” by Lori Nichols

“Patrick's Dinosaurs” by Carol Carrick

“Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes” by Eric Litwin

“Pete’s a Pizza” by William Steig

“Press Here” by Hervâe Tullet

“Red-eyed Tree Frog” by Joy Cowley

“Shark in the Park!” by Nick Sharratt

“The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle

“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak

Kindergarten to 2nd grade

“A to Z Mysteries” by Ron Roy

“The End of the Beginning” by Avi

“Big Red Lollipop” by Rukhsana Khan

“Brave Irene” by William Steig

“Cam Jansen” by David A. Adler

“Chrysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes

“Clementine” by Sara Pennypacker

“Froodle” by Antoinette Portis

“Creepy Carrots!” by Aaron Reynolds

“The Cupcake Diaries” by Coco Simon

“The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt

“David Gets in Trouble” by David Shannon

“Elephant and Piggie” series by Mo Willems

“Fly Guy” by Tedd Arnold

“Fortunately, the Milk” by Neil Gaiman

“Frog and Toad are Friends” by Arnold Lobel

“Froodle” by Antoinette Portis

“Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson

“The Gardener” by Sarah Stewart

“Gaston” by Kelly DiPucchio

“Geronimo Stilton” series by Lorenzo De Pretto

“Grandfather’s Journey” by Allen Say

“The Great Fuzz Frenzy” by Janet Stevens

“Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson

“Ira Sleeps Over” by Bernard Waber

“Luke on the Loose” by Harry Bliss

“The Magic Tree House” series by Mary Pope Osborn

“Mercy Watson” series by Kate DiCamillo

“Mr. Putter & Tabby” series by Cynthia Rylant

“My Teacher Is a Monster! (No I am Not)” by Peter Brown

“My Weird School” series by Dan Gutman

“Nate the Great” series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

“Old Robert and the Sea-Silly Cats” by Barabara Joosse

“On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein” by Jennifer Berne

“Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale” by Duncan Tonatiuh

“Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” by Eric Carle

“The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch

“Pete the Cat” series by Eric Litwin

“Pink & Say” by Patricia Polacco

“The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales”
by John Scieszka

“Subway” by Christoph Niemann

“Thank You, Mr. Falker” by Patricia Polacco

3rd to 5th grade

“The 39 Clues Books” by various authors

“Alex Rider” series by Anthony Horowitz

Any books by Wendy Mass

“The Arrival” by Shaun Tan

“Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo

“The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond” by Brenda Woods

“Frindle” by Andrew Clements

“The Borrowers” by Mary Norton

“Bunnicula” by James Howe

“The City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau

“Copper Sun” by Sharon Draper

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney

“Dork Diaries” by Rachel Renée Russell

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” by Roald Dahl

“The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook” by Joanne Rocklin

“Frindle” by Andrew Clements

“Hachiko Waits” by Leslea Newman

“Hank Zipzer” series by Henry Winkler

“Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad” by Ellen Levine

“I Survived” series by Lauren Tarshis

“Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy” by Gary D. Schmidt

“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” by Kate DiCamillo

“The Mother-Daughter Book Club” by Heather Vogel Frederick

“My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George

“My Weird School” series by Dan Gutman

“Out of My Mind” by Sharon M. Draper

“Percy Jackson” series by Rick Riordon

“Stuart Little” by E.B. White

“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster

“Rules of Summer” by Shaun Tan

“Ryan and Jimmy: And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together” by Herb Shoveller

“The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda” by Tom Angleberger

“Stuart Little” by E.B. White

“The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle” by Avi

“Warriors” series by Erin Hunter

“The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963” by Christopher Paul Curtis

“When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop” by Laban Carrick Hill

“Who Was Bruce Lee?” by Jim Gigliotti

“Wonder” by R.J. Palacio

“The World According to Humphrey” by Betty G. Birney

Middle School

“Airborn” by Kenneth Oppel

Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz

“American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang

“Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery

“Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery

“Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon” by Steve Sheinkin

“The City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau

“Copper Sun” by Sharon M. Draper

“Doll Bones” by Holly Black

“Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie” by Jordan Sonnenblick

“Flipped” by Wendelin Van Draanen

“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes

"The Giver" by Lois Lowry

“The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman

“The Great Greene Heist” by Varian Johnson

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” by J.K. Rowling

“Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen

“Heart of a Shepherd” by Rosanne Parry

“His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman

“Holes” by Louis Sachar

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros

“I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You” by Ally Carter

“Lawn Boy” by Gary Paulsen

“Life as We Knew It” by Susan Beth Pfeffer

“Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy” by Gary D. Schmidt

“Masterpiece” by Elise Broach

“Monster” by Walter Dean Myers

“My Zombie Hampster” by Havelock McCreely

“One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia

“The One the Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate

“Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse

“Out of the Ordinary” by Annie Dalton

“The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton

Ranger's Apprentice series by John A Flanagan

“The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton

“Rules” by Cynthia Lord

“A Single Shard” by Linda Sue Park

“Song of the Lioness” by Tamora Pierce

“Stargirl” by Jerry Spinelli

“Thirteenth Child” by Patricia C. Wrede

“Three Times Lucky” by Sheila Turnage

“The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle” by Avi

“The True Meaning of Smekday” by Adam Rex

‘Under the Mesquite” by Guadelupe Garcia McCall

“The Westing Game” by Ellen Raskin

"When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

"Wonder" by R.J Palacio

High School

“13 Little Blue Envelopes” by Maureen Johnson

“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain

“Anna and The French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins

“Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell

“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Classic books and worthy new titles for young readers courtesy of North Jersey librarians

Clockwise from top left: "Harold and the Purple Crayon," I'm My Own Dog," "Stuart Little," "The Outsiders," "The Unfinished life of Addison Stone" and "When the Beat was Born."

By KARA YORIO

staff writer |

The Record

Reading lists shouldn’t be just for summer.

As the school year is set to begin, we asked librarians from the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) for their recommendations of classics and newer titles for kids from pre-K to senior year. BCCLS is a consortium of 75 public libraries in North Jersey, with 61 branches in Bergen County, one in Passaic, nine in Essex and four in Hudson. If you want to get a passionate response, just ask a bunch of librarians about books for children and young adults.

“There’s no way to quantify the way books can change children’s lives: the magic, the discovery, the fun and, yes, the learning,” BCCLS Library Services Director Arlene Sahraie wrote in an email. “Books can change the world one reader at a time.”

Everybody knows about the “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and Harry Potter, among other famous titles and characters, but local library shelves are stacked with many more worthy books for all ages and interests.

Here are a few of the librarians’ must-reads for each age group — parents and children no doubt already know some of these well, but others may be new discoveries.

“We always like to say that our recommended reading lists are just the beginning,” wrote Sarah Pardi, children’s librarian at the Fort Lee Public Library. “I believe the best part of the library is the child's ability to walk to a shelf, pull out a book and discover something new and wonderful on their own.”

Email: yoriok@northjersey.com

We asked librarians from the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) for their recommendations of classics and newer titles for kids from kindergarten to senior year. BCCLS is a consortium of 75 public libraries in North Jersey with 61 branches in Bergen County, one in Passaic, nine in Essex and four in Hudson.